Glycolic acid and tretinoin
Keep them apart
Use them on alternate nights because they are both strong and should not go on together. Using both at the same time causes too much peeling, redness, and irritation on the face. The shopper can switch to a lower strength or give their skin a night off between the two products.
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Glycolic acid products
- The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution
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RoC
Retinol Correxion Deep Wrinkle Night Cream
S$35.46
- First Aid Beauty KP Bump Eraser Body Scrub
- First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads
- Murad Rapid Dark Spot Correcting Serum
- Skinbetter Science AlphaRet Overnight Cream
- St. Ives Apricot Scrub
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COSRX
AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner
S$16.86
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Dr. Dennis Gross
Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel
S$141.06
- Pixi Glow Tonic
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Good Molecules
Overnight Exfoliating Treatment
S$43.99
-
CeraVe
Skin Renewing Nightly Exfoliating Treatment
S$35.46
Tretinoin products
- Retin-A Cream
- Tri-Luma Cream
- Musely The Spot Cream
- Obagi Tretinoin Cream 0.05%
- Taro Tretinoin Cream
- Mylan Tretinoin
- Curology Formula
- Menarini A-Ret Gel
Questions and answers
Can you use glycolic acid and tretinoin together?
Keep glycolic acid and tretinoin apart by using them on alternate evenings, because combining them may cause irritation and disrupt your skin barrier.
Which goes first, glycolic acid or tretinoin?
Keep glycolic acid and tretinoin apart by using them in separate routines, such as glycolic acid in the morning or on alternating nights and tretinoin on different evenings. Combining them in the same step may over-exfoliate your skin and cause irritation or barrier disruption.
Are glycolic acid and tretinoin good for sensitive skin?
Glycolic acid and tretinoin should be kept apart to avoid irritation and barrier disruption, especially on sensitive skin. You can alternate them by using glycolic acid in the morning or every other night, and tretinoin on alternate evenings.
Research on glycolic acid and tretinoin
Behind this pairing advice
Lovi checks every pairing with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.
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Co-founder, Medical Director
Cosmetic chemist, cosmetologist, aesthetic products developer
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Co-founder, CEO and CTO
PhD in computer science, 3x US patent holder, ex-Google, ex-Yandex
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Dr. Sof铆a Perea P茅rez, MD, MSc
Medical Board
Aesthetic medicine practitioner, MSc in Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine
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Medical Board
Specialist dermatologist, MBBS, MD, IFAAD
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Medical Board
Cosmetic chemist, SCS, IFSCC member
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Medical Board, Medical Advisor
Dermatology MD
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Elina Nazarenko, MD
Medical Board
Dermatology and diagnostic consultant
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Victoria Derkova, MS
Medical Board
Cosmetic chemist, cosmetic development technologist
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